Endless Thread

Dun dun... This week, on Endless Thread... dun dun... something new is here... dun dun dun dun... a podcast mini-series about the 50th anniversary of the cinematic classic... DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun..."Jaws!" Part 1 of this mini-series, Jaws Island, is right here, right now, and it's all about the "finatics" (yes, that's what they call themselves). WBUR arts and culture correspondent Andrea Shea takes us to Martha's Vineyard — AKA "Amity Island," where Jaws was filmed — for the 50th anniversary celebration of the film. Through conversations with "finatics," collectors, and cast members, Andrea learns how Steven Spielberg's enduring monster movie sank its teeth into us. Parts 2 and 3 are right around the corner, so follow Jaws Island in your podcast app! ("You're gonna need a bigger podcast library!")

What happens when we outsource aspects of our most personal moments to machines? In the second installment of our two-part series on AI and relationships, we hear from Rhiannon Williams, a reporter for MIT Technology Review who spoke to people all over the world about how they're using AI to relate to their loved ones, including a man who turns to it during marital disputes, a French mother who uses it to craft nightly tales for her son, and a nursing student who calls her AI companion her "boyfriend." Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter and edited by Meg Cramer. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

Amir Mizroch spent years deconstructing fairy tales for his children — and thinking that maybe, he could create something out of his analysis and storytelling for a wider audience. In the first episode of our two-part series on AI and relationships, we hear what Amir finally created, and explore the questions it raises about connection in the digital age. Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter, and edited by Meg Cramer. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

In the past few years, videos from a new kind of camp have begun circulating the internet. They feature men participating in a variety of bizarre activities: from aggressively digging holes under floodlights, to collectively wailing in a pool of water. These are man camps, where men can pay up to $18,000 to undergo extreme boot-camp-like conditioning in the name of reclaiming their masculinity. This week on Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and senior producer Dean Russell, dive into the past, present and future of man camps. Show notes: Learning 'how to be a man' in the Californian desert: Man Camp (The Guardian)

On this week's Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter bring us two stories about the power of livestreams – one from the Coldplay concert box seats, and another from a notorious rat corridor in Brooklyn, NYC. Show notes: What's the deal with "Astronomer" CEO and CPO affair? (Reddit) A Crown Heights Building's Rat Infestation Gets a Livestream (Hell Gate) Rat cam (YouTube/Adam Schleser) I am a rat (a real live rotten-tailed rat)  (YouTube/Adam Schleser)

Kristen Sotakoun (@notkahnjunior on TikTok) says she has always been 'the FBI of the friend group' – that person you can count on to dig up the juicy details on anyone's social media. It's a skillset that has earned her millions  upon millions of views on TikTok in a series she has dubbed 'consensual doxing.' In her videos, Kristen completes challenges from her viewers to find their birthdays, using only publicly posted information online. Kristen is now a handful of creators on TikTok who are making consensual doxing videos as educational content, encouraging viewers to think more deeply about what they post online, and where. On this week's Endless Thread, we dive into the world of consensual doxing, what it can teach us about our privacy, and host Ben Brock Johnson gets (consensually) doxed. Show notes: I got popular on TikTok by being a total creep (Business Insider) This Man Proves You Can Find Anyone Using Geolocation — and It's a Scary Lesson for All of Us (Distractify) ‘Consensual doxxing’

What does the thumbs-up emoji mean to you? Or the wilted rose? The meanings of emojis are limitless and can differ across social groups or generations. On this episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories about how certain emojis have taken on surprising meanings. Show notes: * Here’s why the Aerial Tramway Emoji is suddenly in every YouTube comment section (daily dot) *Alright guys.. What is does this emoji mean and why is it used so much? (Reddit)

If you feel like it's been raining a lot on the weekends this summer, you're not alone. A couple months ago, we noticed a thread on r/boston asking why? So, we enlisted the help of one of our WBUR colleagues, Climate and Environment Corespondent Barbara Moran to clear things up once and for all. Show notes: Rain Every Weekend??? (Reddit) OMG, why is it raining every Saturday in Boston? (WBUR)

This episode originally aired on July 12, 2024. It has been updated to more clearly represent communication with Kayleigh Grant about a conversation with Kristian Parton. When Endless Thread producer Grace Tatter heard a friend assert that she could ward off a shark because of TikTok, Grace was both concerned for her friend's safety, and curious. Why are there so many videos about "redirecting" sharks on TikTok, and how accurate are they? Hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dive into the controversial world of SharkTok, where influencers are trying to show a different side of sharks by getting up close and personal with them. Show notes: Mermaid Kayleigh (Instagram) Welcome to Shark Bytes (YouTube) Steven Spielberg on the BBC's Desert Island Disks A diver's extremely close visit with a great white shark went viral. Marine biologists say don't copy her. (Washington Post)Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter with Cici Yu. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was hosted by

This week on Endless Thread, we're raiding our refrigerators and rating our favorite condiments with TikTok creator and author "Condiment Claire" Dinhut. We learn about the surprising history of some of our favorite flavor-enhancers, and Claire shares her secrets for using up the last bits of sauce in a jar and how she keeps her online presence appetizing. Show notes: The Condiment Book (Flatiron Books) Credits: This episode was written and produced by Grace Tatter. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. It was hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. 

In the hours leading up to Israel commencing its June missile strikes on Iran, X users were posting about pizza. Specifically, how pizza places around the United States Pentagon were experiencing an unusual spike in business.  The Pentagon Pizza Index refers to a theory that dates back to the Cold War, suggesting that increased pizza orders around the Pentagon could be a harbinger of imminent military action by the U.S. or its close allies. In this special episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory dig into the Pizza Index, its history and make some calls to Pentagon-area pizza places for a hot slice of reality pie. Show notes: Pentagon Pizza Report (X) Happening Right Now: Dominos Nearest the Pentagon is "Busier than usual"(Reddit) Pentagon Pizza Monitor Appeared To Predict Israel Attack (Newsweek) What is the Pentagon Pizza theory eating away at the internet? (Euro News) Pentagon Pizza Index: The theory that surging pizza orders signal global crises (Fast Company)

A picture's worth a thousand words, or in this case, a podcast episode. This week Ben and Amory bring two very different stories from Reddit about pictures on the internet. First – what legal rights do we have over our photos after posting them on Instagram? Then, Ben indoctrinates Amory to The Game. Show notes: Unauthorized use of my photo being displayed in every corporate store in US. Where to start? (Reddit) Let's confuse the younger generation (Reddit) This content was originally created for audio. An auto-generated transcript is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.

Jeffrey Ngo is from Hong Kong. He used to talk about politics all of the time with his friends in group chats and on social media, from casually sending memes, to planning protests. What happens to online speech when you're unsure how much the government is monitoring your speech, and what the repurcussions will be if they don't like it? Show notes: PROFILE: For Jeffrey Ngo, The Fight For Hong Kong is Far From Over (The Hoya) Social Media and the Hong Kong Protests (The New Yorker) Hong Kong protesters join hands in 30-mile human chain (The Guardian) Hong Kong national security law: What is it and is it worrying? (BBC) Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter. It was co-hosted by Amory Sivertson and Ben Brock Johnson. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

Men's fashion might seem like a niche topic. But people of all genders and sartorial sensibilities follow Derek Guy on X for his clothing takes... even if they're not quite sure how they found his page. Endless Thread talks to Derek about how he weaves together humor, history, cultural criticism, and political commentary to make fashion feel relevant to people who have never seriously considered it before. Show notes @dieworkwear (X) Die, Workwear! The Post Trend Universe (The New York Times Style Magazine) Status and Culture, by W. David Marx Credits: This episode was produced by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. Production assistance from Grace Tatter. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. It was co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

'Tis the season to show some skin! Perhaps some tattoo-adorned skin? In this week's episode, Ben tells Amory about the r/tattoos community's reaction to a man whose friends made him self-conscious about his flowery tattoo. Amory tells Ben about the science behind why tattoos stay put on our bodies, which has only recently come to be understood.

The thing about social media when it was created was that it was public. Ideas shared were debated for all to see. Today much of that is happening behind closed doors—in group chats. Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of the media outlet Semafor and co-host of the podcast Mixed Signals, speaks with Endless Thread about the elite group chats on Signal and WhatsApp that are shaping American politics. ***** Credits: This episode was produced by Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. The co-hosts are Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

The bots are here to stay, and they're everywhere. The trouble is, learning how to spot them. On this week's episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories from Reddit about undercover bots. First — is there such a thing as an easy tell for identifying bots? Second, what happens when internet users accept bots as fellow humans, only to discover the truth later? Show Notes: ‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ (The Atlantic) OpenAI used this subreddit to test AI persuasion (Tech Crunch)

A few years ago, we brought you the story of how dinosaur emoji had entered the debate about trans rights. We were reminded of this episode recently when a White House memorandum lambasted NPR for spreading "radical, woke propaganda" and linked to our story as an example. After the memo, President Trump signed an executive order to stop federal funding to NPR and PBS. We stand by our reporting. And so we decided to bring you the episode again. ***** We love making Endless Thread, and we want to be able to keep making it far into the future. If you want that too, we would deeply appreciate your contribution to our work in any amount. Click here for the donation page. Thank you! ***** This episode was written and produced by Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Matt Reed. The co-hosts are Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. Special thanks for Dane Grey for the artwork.

It's rant season. Or is it? When is it *not* rant season? In this week's episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two very different, very viral, rants from Reddit. One is about how the current design trends in our public and private spaces are hard on the ears. Another discusses how escape room adventures can bring out the worst in people. Perhaps there's some humor and some lessons to glean from rants, too?

At any given time, 110 people can tell you exactly where James Tatter is. Every single iPhone user has the Find My app on their phone, which allows them to share their location with friends and family. Increasingly, for young people like James, it's becoming also a form of social media. Endless Thread producer (and James's sister) Grace Tatter wanted to know how something that seems creepy to some people became so commonplace to others — and how it's affecting our relationships off the screen. Show notes: On the Grid: Surveillance as a Love Language (The Drift) Dodgeball Shuttered By Google, Its Co-Creator Promises To Clone It (Business Insider) Thinking Critically about Social Media (American Sociology Association) Talking Tech with Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue (SuperSaf) The Impact of Location-Tracking Apps on Relationships (Psychology Today) Credits: This episode was written, reported and produced by Grace Tatter. It was edited by Meg Cramer. Co-hosted by Grace Tatter, Am